Kabul

- The Afghan government has begun removing thousands of concrete barriers from the center of the capital, Kabul, and other cities, and moving them to villages and countryside to benefit from them, after the security threats in the country receded.

The idea came from the citizen Muhammad Nazim, who posted a post on a communication site in which he suggested taking advantage of the concrete security barriers scattered in the streets and alleys of Kabul and all of the 34 wilayats. Dollars were spent on the checkpoints by the previous government, and these walls should be used for something useful."

Residents of the capital have been complaining about the large number of barriers (some of which are 4 meters long) that hide the features of their city, and the narrowing of many streets and alleys in Kabul over the past 20 years due to security tensions, and repeated attacks targeting vital institutions and buildings.

Rouhallah, who was interviewed by Al Jazeera Net near his house in the Wazir Akbar Khan area, says, "Wherever you turn, you see a military and security barracks in the form of concrete walls that hinder movement. We always have to take long roads because of the closure of the roads, despite the short distance," adding, "People are tired here and the citizen is alone." who suffers."

Security walls surrounded the Afghan citizen and were used in political and cultural propaganda (Reuters)

The transfer of security barriers through the Kabul municipality began with 3 districts: Chernau, Karti Char and Wazir Akbar Khan. The latter is known as the Green Zone in the capital because of the presence of most foreign embassies, government institutions and the homes of former senior officials, all of which have many cement walls.

Al Jazeera.net met Mawlawi Ehsanullah Jawad, the official of District 12 in the Kabul Municipality, who says that they moved hundreds of checkpoints to a vast land that some influential people wanted to seize.

He added, "We have a plan to exploit these barriers in various areas according to the orders of officials, including preventing floods from farmers' lands, and in other areas according to citizens' requests and needs."

The last move of the Kabul municipality came after about 6 months of relative military and political stability in the country. Hundreds of concrete barriers have been moved to rural areas and villages near rivers in anticipation of floods that may occur in the spring and summer seasons, and some of them will be used to support bridges near rivers for fear of their collapse, according to government officials say.

A security wall surrounds a diplomatic compound in the capital, Kabul (Getty Images)

Kabul is no exception. Several cities have begun dismantling the concrete barriers. In Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan, we met the farmer Niaz Muhammad after a number of concrete walls were installed near his field. He tells Al Jazeera Net that he is lucky, as "the wall repels the floods and torrential torrents that were sweeping our lands." Now our fields are safe from any threat that comes from rising rivers.”

The number of cement walls in Afghanistan is estimated at hundreds of thousands. In the Bagram military base alone, there are more than 20 thousand concrete pieces, and the price of each wall varies according to weight, type and size, and their prices range between one thousand and two thousand dollars, and it is believed that withdrawing them from Kabul takes years, and keeping some of them as It is in front of the buildings of diplomatic missions, international institutions, government and security institutions.